Fox relishing first Old Firm derby

02 January 2010 01:22

The Celtic defender, signed from Coventry in the summer, missed out on the trip to Ibrox in October with a hamstring injury and sat in the Broomloan Road stand with the away fans as the visitors lost 2-1 to their bitter rivals.

Having recovered to re-establish himself in the left-back position, the Scotland defender cannot wait for the lunchtime kick-off to arrive.

"When I signed for Celtic, the Old Firm game was one of the first fixtures I looked for and to get injured in the game before it against Rapid Vienna was bitterly disappointing," he said.

"I was gutted, but it has come around again quite quickly and I am looking forward to it.

"I have been to a few derbies, like Manchester United v Manchester City and Everton v Liverpool, but the atmosphere at Ibrox was pretty special.

"It was a lot louder than I expected and very passionate.

"The game was played at 100mph but I thought the football played by both teams was brilliant.

"I watched the game in the away end with the Celtic fans and it was a good experience, especially the first 15 minutes.

"The Celtic fans were going crazy until, obviously, we went 2-0 down. They went a bit quiet then but, when Aiden McGeady scored the penalty, it was lifted again.

"So it was a great experience but obviously I would have preferred to be out on the pitch.

"I haven't played in anything like that but, as a footballer, you have to be prepared to play in every type of game. So I'm looking forward to it."

Fox is aware the Ibrox side can go 10 points clear of Celtic at the top of the SPL with a victory, but the Cheshire-born player is confident the same level of performance produced at Ibrox can help Celtic see the new year in with a home win.

"If we play the way we did against Rangers the last time then I think we can get the right result, definitely," he said.

"I think, that day, we played as well as we have done away from home this season on the ball, but we conceded two silly goals which was disappointing.

"Rangers are in good form at the moment as we can see by the amount of goals they are scoring so we have to try and nullify that as much as we can.

"But we can't concentrate too much on them; we have to go out and play our own game and hopefully we can get the three points."